The World Festival of Students and Youth will take place this August
7-15th in Caracas, Venezuela. The theme of this festival is
international, anti-imperialist solidarity. That is a very fitting
theme for a festival taking place in Caracas.

The World Festival of Students and Youth will take place this August
7-15th in Caracas, Venezuela. The theme of this festival is
international, anti-imperialist solidarity. That is a very fitting
theme for a festival taking place in Caracas.As has been reported on
www.handsoffvenezuela.org, the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela is under the very serious threat of intervention
and attack at the hands of U.S. imperialism. That is why we must take
the lessons we learn at this festival and use them to generate defense
action here at home!

The
Venezuelan revolution must be defended as an example to all of Latin
America and to the world. In Venezuela, the people rose. From the grass
roots level, the people have founded their own democracy. They have
overcome attack from within and from without. They elected their own
president, they smashed the short lived U.S.-backed coup, they defeated
the recall referendum with overwhelming participation, and they have
passed laws on land reform and established worker-controlled factories
a number of times. This revolutionary process is a shining example to
us all.

Now, the revolution is under heavy pressure from
Washington. The Bush regime has expressed its “concern” about the
events in Venezuela and would like nothing more than to see a
restoration of the old system. The rich Venezuelan oligarchy are
snuggled nicely in the U.S. ruling class’ back pocket (right next to
their wallet). With enemies like these, the revolution needs all the
help it can get. We saw that in Nicaragua and Granada.

Because the Venezuelan revolutionary
process is at a decisive stage, where the people will see it through to
the socialist end or the oligarchy and the foreign capitalist
puppetmasters will destroy it, an international defense network is
needed. There must be an organized network, fighting for the right to
self determination without foreign interference of semi-colonial
countries such as Venezuela. How do we help?

The Hands Off Venezuela Campaign,
founded in December 2002, has been at the forefront of this defense
through its various public events, appeals and petitions, fundraisers,
and educational analysis. Now that campaign is expanding.The campaign
is launching HOV coalitions across the U.S. and the world to educate
and rally people at the local level.

Also, it isn’t too late to
sign the Hands Off Venezuela appeal! The more signatures we can get,
the more we can show the people of Venezuela and the gangsters in
Washington that we support the Venezuelan workers and poor and we will
all see it through to the end. The aims of the U.S. HOV campaign are
clear:

The U.S. Hands Off
Venezuela Campaign opposes all forms of intervention by the U.S.
government and its agencies in Venezuela and works to:

Educate and raise awareness about events in Venezuela in order to counter the bias of the mainstream media.

Build solidarity between American and Venezuelan trade unionists and working people in general.

Now we have to get organized. Contact the HOV campaign about joining
or starting your local HOV committee. Sign the original appeal or the
trade union appeal at www.ushov.org. Support the important
initiatives of HOV such as the visit by Stalin Perez Borges of the
Venezuelan National Workers’ Union (UNT) to the West Coast in
September. Join in the defense, because a victory in Venezuela is a
victory for us all!